A Map for Saturday: Movie Review

A MAP FOR SATURDAY is the product of a year’s travel through 26 countries on four continents. Emmy winning producer Brook Silva-Braga left his cushy gig with American TV network HBO to travel the world with five pounds of clothes and 30 pounds of video equipment.

The barebones production set-up yields an intimate window onto the world of long-term, solo travel; moments of stark loneliness and genuine revelation.

During the year, two-dozen solo travelers intersect with Silva-Braga, helping tell the story of the place they’ve met and the experience they share.

The film lands in Australia at mid-summer and in Nepal on the eve of revolution. There’s the challenge of Vietnam’s absurd traffic and Europe’s steep prices.

Beyond clichés of shagging backpackers and dubious self-discovery, Silva-Braga finds a hidden world of long-term, solo travelers. At times lonely and difficult; more often joyous, and always adventurous, A MAP FOR SATURDAY completes an around the world trip in 90 minutes.

After the jump, my thoughts on the Movie.

While watching this movie – it reminded me of myself as well as the 1000s of others that I met through travelling and producing BootsnAll for the past 9 years. All these folks that have done long-term independent travel will most likely enjoy or relate to many parts of this movie. If you are thinking about traveling, this a a good one to watch for younger folks.

It reminded me of Chris, Euan, Brendan and I as we started our “BootsnAll” trip back in 1996. The emotions of being alone, meeting new friends, and the freedom of travelling around the world is just an indescribable feeling. The movie re-kindled emotions of traveling and sucking the marrow out of life. Maybe I can take a sabbatical in the next few years and do it all over again.

The filmmaker, Brooks, is a good storyteller and even if you are not into traveling – but into learning, I think you will enjoy/learn something from this film. As Gadling says, it helps answer the question of “why we travel”. So, well done Mr. Silva-Braga.